Monday, November 22, 2010

How to Find Stuff on a Blog

Here are a few things I've learned:

Search Box: At the very top of the blog, above the masthead, is a search box. When I type in "Mark Twain," six articles are listed in which I had mentioned Twain. It's easy to overlook this unobtrusive search box.

Share Box at the end of an article: Run your cursor across the box (which is a semi-transparent grey). The sharing application colors as the cursor passes over it: Email This, Blog This!, Share to Twitter, Share to Facebook, and Share to Google Buzz. I've added a share gadget to my blog's right sidebar for Twitter and Facebook because the share box at the end of the article is so mild-mannered.

Sidebar Badges and Gadgets: I've added links to sites I've found interesting and that I believe might be of use to readers. For readers of books, I've added several badge links to book review blogs. For writers, I've included badge links for flash fiction, writing submission queries, and a badge for linking to my Facebook writing pages.

Buy Here: "My Books and More" provides access to my books via Amazon, and also other books I think are useful. The Amazon Search Box gives easy access to online buying (and also provides me with a small percent for being an associate store). Online purchasers, use these gadgets excessively.

Labels: This sidebar gadget can provide quick insight into the kinds of articles I write; it can also provide easy access to those articles. Click the link, and all those labeled posts will stream to the central column.

Links and Blogs: A quick look at what I think is important and interesting.

I've enjoyed this stroll through my blog's organization, and I hope I've organized my blog in a manner that makes it easy to read.